What is CPaaS?
CPaaS is becoming increasingly more of a buzzing topic in the telecom world. But what excactly is it and how does it differ from the UCaaS we’re familiar with today? First and foremost, it’s an abbreviation of the term “Communication Platform as a Service” and is a cloud-based platform. This sounds similar to UCaaS, and it’s not entirely wrong, but they do have some differences.
To make it a little more clear as to how they differ, they share the same cloud foundation and are both delivered over public and private networks. Both platforms suit large as well as small companies. But the similarities, coupled with the fact that they belong in the communication sphere, actually end right here. CPaaS focuses on enriching communication channels and act as a platform for companies that want to combine communication services with their own customer oriented applications by using API’s. In short this means that this cloud-based service allows organizations to embed real-time functions such as voice, video, message to a company application by using API’s. The communication services can be embedded right into the company applicaitons such as CRM tool and you can also add features such as notifications, click to call and multi authentication. A chat API can for example be used to integrate the feature for customers that already use popular tools like Facebook Messenger in their current mobile offer.
CPaaS therefore allows developers to program a range of real-time solutions for communication in the cloud with their own applications that provide customers with the best experience possible. This can also be summarized in that CPaaS stands for the back-end of the communication platform with API’s that allow you to present a unique and customized front-end offer. In the back-end the APIs are delivered through a VoIP network to allow for calls and texts, which also has the ability to provide any internet connected unit with telephone features. CPaaS also provides today’s application developers and product owners with the ability to embed the mest sought after and new digital and mobile tools without having to build any of your own infrastructure.
- CPaaS is short for “Communication Platform as a Service”
- CPaaSallows developers to integrate telephony with current tools by using APIs
- CPaaS is a cost-efficient alternative because you don’t need to build or maintain your own infrastructure
- CPaaS allows you to offer customers a great experience by integrating telephony into the services they use the most
Why is it important?
CPaaS is primarily important for organizations that want to seamlessly embed communication in their day-to-day company applications. It’s also important for cloud service suppliers and developers that want to add more functionality to their repertoire. CPaaS platforms include standardised APIs and code libraries to choose from when building additional applications. CPaaS can also offer bundles that include predestined communication features that can be easily added into applications. CPaaS offer companies and organisations practical and price-worthy tool for communication that don’t require any development on your part
Many companies today lean towards CPaaS due to the fact that you don’t need to own any of your own hardware, and can therefore deliver easy, fast and cost-efficient access to telephony and chat functions that a company needs in order to provide great service. It’s also very useful in day-to-day customer management like being able to send a notification before a booked appointment or being able to click to call support right in the app if you have any issues.
Another great reason as to why CPaaS is so important for companies today, is how consumers evolve just like technology. Companies to be slow to the chase in adapting new technology for the developing customer base. And with this in mind, customer loyalty is also steadily decreasing due to the fact that it’s so easy to change to another supplier or solution. To avoid loosing your customer base it’s important to tag along with new channels and functions on the market. CPaaS therefore means that when new customers adopt new channels to communicate with a company, the company can easily adjust and offer these. The benefit here lies in that companies can concentrate on what they do best and at the same time offer innovative communication solutions to their customers. Companies can also use as many or as few channels they like, and this mix and match form of communication offer a row of customization options for companies as well as customers.
Different types of CPaaS suppliers
- API supplier
These often consist of software companies such as Twilio och Sinch that act as partner for different companies of smaller size. They suit companies like startups that need fast time-to-market, have less incoming and outgoing traffic and only need a simple solution for telephony. Since these usually don’t pertain extensive experience in telecom, they don’t suit companies on a larger scale that have high requirements of telephony. They do however suit companies that don’t require much support during the development phase. - API supplier with own network
One example of this kind of supplier is the company Bandwidth that started as a network supplier and then ventured into API. These typically have a broader range of users that include product owners and developers, with or without experience in telecom. Due to owning their own network, they’re also able to offer ability to reach the market fast, and have a great repertoire of phone numbers and high quality voice and text services. Depending on how complex your business or system is, it might require more support during and after the development phase thus making this type an eligible alternative.
Traditional telecom suppliers like carries offer telephony services, but don’t fall into the CPaaS category. This is due to the fact that they rarely work with developers combined with that they don’t or have very few APIs.
CPaaS benefits
CPaaS can help companies in many positive ways. And as technology develops, so will your company.
- Costs – Similar to old sound systems, it’s always more practical to decrease the number of systems and hardware, and this also results in lower costs. Add less infrastructure into the equation and you can count on some pretty hefty savings for your company.
- Time – Since CPaaS is a whole bundle that offer developers quick and efficient ways to integrate already made applications, it doesn’t require much or any time at all to build or manage your own apps.
- Energy – This of course goes hand in hand with saving time. But by saving developers valuable time in building and maintaining apps, they can spend their time elsewhere on other essential parts of the company.
The future of CPaaS
The time is now for CPaaS and it’s mainly thanks to the emerging new enterprises. When companies like Uber and Lyft embarked on the market, they quickly realised that to bring their business to the next level, they needed cloud-bases communication. And when the market took notice, CPaaS soon became a highly sought after complete solution.
Voice recognition is also a buzzing topic in the world of communication and is believed to become a key player in the future of CPaaS. Features like this can be developed on your own but is very time consuming. It’s easier in those cases to turn to giants like Google or Amazon that have well established models for voice recognition as well as imitating voices. This is also used in PBX functions like when a customer is calling in, their question will be analyzed and a bot will be able to pick out a suitable answer. This will be highly relevant in customer service in cases such as when a customer asks for a location and the operator will just be able to read out an already analyzed the answer from the computer.
CPaaS is also predicted to keep growing in the future and with new technology, more exciting features and services will tag along. Machines will also become smarter and this means that cloud-based platforms will be able to implement self-service functions with easy API integrations, which thus makes AI another future point for CPaaS. Chat bots will also become a hot topic.
In comparison with technique that’s available today, it’s easy for companeis to adopt CPaaS strategy with minimal investment. All types of companies can easily look through the API library and implement as many or as few channels as they want to their communication network. The only thing required is to decide what’s needed from the system
CPaaS with Dstny
Our developers daily help our customers integrate their telephony with company’s different CRM, economy, business, and errand system. This included customized apps like CRM pop-up in the mobile where you can see all the latest CRM errands.
Dstny’s telephony services can also be used to fortify applications that end-users already use or that you plan to implement. Integrate Dstny telephony with apps like Microsoft Teams or Exchange to get more out of your company telephony and apps.